CAUSES OF RIOTING

Grey River Argus, 3 May 1932, Page 3

CAUSES OF RIOTING

(To the Editor.) Sir. —I notice in the “Argus” and also in the “New Zealand Worker.” a letter signed by H. A. Parkinson, Secretary New Zoalnad Educat’onal Institute. Wellington, attributing the rioting an ( ] other disturbances to ignorance. And in the latter part of Hie letter we find the following words:— “They (the possessors of wealth) are so obsessed that they cannot see that lhe only protection against disorder and vio 'nee leading to revolution, is mo’e and better education.” Well, well! 1 would like to ask the secretary of the N.Z.E.I. the following question: Would not more and bet. ■ •er education lead on to the revolution he doesn’t want; I’m afraid the Educational Institute, has been dealing with effects, and deliberately forgetting the causes. May I also point out that the capitalists can only keep the workers in economic subjection by keeping them in mental subjection. This mental subjection is accomplished by :rhe schools, the universities, and he p’ress. The educational institui'ons of to-day are provided to satisfy the needs of capitalism. Education is granted to the worker not to 'evolop him as a human being, but to ■ke him a wage-J"lave. It is but •a ning of the cattle for the yoke. The universities are the means for training th e professional classes to assist ; n the work of exploitation. They produce lawyers to serve private property, technical specialists to organise industry for the capitalists and teachers fo carry on propaganda in the schools. If the workers are to solve the problem of their economic oppression (the - cause of rioting) it cannot be done by the oducat on receiv’d from their masters. Their need "is rot more of capitalistic education, but education that is independent of ‘. rd opposed to capitalistic philosophy. There is ft working class as well as a (‘."piialist class view in social science. Tho<e classes look upon wages, proork and society from two differnt ang’es. The class struggle is not •onfinod to strikes and lock-outs, it is waged with equal intensity i n the realm of ideas and theories. The government performs the dual function of administering the affairs of capitalist society and acting as a means to keep the workers in their places, and it would be just a R logical to ask the Minister of Education, to provide more money to give the workers the scien

lific truth, as to ask the financial ins. nations and industrial interests to g vr workers control of the means of production distribution and exchange. Let u> lake an example of the present day methods of teaching as employed m the New Zealand ‘ choo s. History is .’iaught, not with the sound idea of making pupils familiar with the changing character of society and the nature of historical processes, but ro give them decisive views about certain institutions—the Throne, the Church, rhe family and so forth. The consequence is that a child’s education often commences when it has left school, and then it- has to undo much that it has spent years in learning. It is taking advantage of the child’s helplessness to provide it with fixi?d views on what is admittedly a matter of opinion and th s false method of teaching follows the child into manhood and woman hood. Th- question the N.Z.E.I. is called upon to answer by the letter is: Are the children in the New Zea land schools getting education o. propaganda ? 1 confine my remarks mainly to the children, because’the majority of grown-ups are mental > the result of their early training. In my opin on, there is not the leart doubt but. that propaganda is the nior ? corr- ct term to use. Th? great thing in the education of child.en. I consider,, is not what they are taught, but how hey are taught. What ch ldren think should not concen the educationalist so much as how they think. When the King, in Wiliam Morris’s story. A King’s L sson. was jogging homeward. w.th his courtiers after they had all sweated at the task of spreading dung, under the supervision of the serf, he was n a thoughtful mood, and when one of his captains questioned him. they fell to discussing the means whe*eby they lived. Said the captain, “As the potter lives by making pots, so we live by robbing lhe poor.” “Bear that in mind ” said th e King “and then I shall tell thee my thought while yonder Carle spoke. ‘Carle ’ 1 thought, - were I thou, or such a s thou, then would I ’.rake in my hand a sword, op a spear, or were it only a hedge stake, and forth we would go; and, since we would be so many, and with naught to lose save a miserable life, we wou’d do battle, and prevail and make an end of the craft of kings and of lords, and of usurers; and there should but be one craft in the world, to wit. to work merrily for ourselves, and to live merrily thereby.’* I am etc., H. L. EVANS, Stockton.